Future Opportunities for Authors ~ Closer Than You Might Think . . .

“Is the Internet (and digital gadgetry) killing the novel, literary life and deep thinking? Do we live in an era of information abundance and opportunity—or an era of information overload and distraction?”

That quote is from an article by Jane Friedman in the Virginia Quarterly Review—Being a Creative Person in an Ever-Changing Digital Age.

Jane interviews David Houle, Futurist, Speaker, and Thinker, about his book, Entering The Shift Age, which is published in a Futuristic way since you can by the complete book or 8 mini-versions to sample the contents…

The full article is important reading for any writer interested in stretching their perception of what is, and soon will be, available as options for their career; but, for those already busy with getting on with the Future, here’s an excerpt :-)

Jane: So let’s talk more specifically about book publishing. In your predictions, you mention that e-books will increase to 60% of market share by the end of 2014, and I would expect that, too. But lately, in industry circles, the common talking point is how much the growth has slowed down or leveled off. What do you think?

David: The first obvious answer is that when something goes from a half percent to 10 percent in three years, it’s almost impossible to replicate that rate of growth. So anyone who says, “The rate of growth is slowing,” well, yeah, obviously. It’s also a pattern with something new: E-books are cheaper, I probably have 30 books on my iPhone, and I’ve read 10, because they’re so easy to buy. Now I think that we’re in that phase of “I bought too much and I have to consume it.” And then I think it’s going to launch off again.

Jane: Your book was published as part of Sourcebooks’ new agile publishing model. Describe what that entailed.

David: There were three parts to the process.

1. Put up the content and let people give me input, like choreographed crowdsourcing.

2. Publish the book before it’s finished. So, in other words, I was writing on Part 4 of that book while Parts 1 & 2 were sold as e-books. Tied to that is the publishing of 12 mini-ebooks before the book is published.

3. An enhanced e-book with video.

The following video of David focuses a lot on how CEOs need to think about the new world of creativity but, considering that authors are becoming the “CEOs” of their own careers, any writer can find much to ponder…

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